gecko-dev/webtools/bugzilla

This is Bugzilla.  See <http://www.mozilla.org/bugs/>.


        ==========
        DISCLAIMER
        ==========

   This is not very well packaged code.  It's not packaged at all.  Don't
come here expecting something you plop in a directory, twiddle a few
things, and you're off and using it.  Work has to be done to get there.  
We'd like to get there, but it wasn't clear when that would be, and so we
decided to let people see it first.

        ============
        INSTALLATION
        ============

0. Introduction

   Installation of bugzilla is pretty straight forward, especially if your
machine already has MySQL and the MySQL-related perl packages installed.
If those aren't installed yet, then that's the first order of business.  The
other necessary ingredient is a web server set up to run cgi scripts.

1. Installing the Prerequisites

   The software packages necessary for the proper running of bugzilla are:

        1. MySQL database server and the mysql client
        2. Perl (5.004 or greater)
        3. DBI Perl module 
        4. Data::Dumper Perl module
        5. MySQL related Perl module collection
        6. TimeDate Perl module collection
        7. GD perl module (1.18 or greater)
        8. Chart::Base Perl module (0.99 or greater)
        9. The web server of your choice

   Bugzilla has quite a few prerequisites, but none of them are TCL.
Previous versions required TCL, but it no longer needed (or used).

1.1. Getting and setting up MySQL database

   Visit MySQL homepage at http://www.mysql.org and grab the latest stable
release of the server.  Both binaries and source are available and which
you get shouldn't matter.  Be aware that many of the binary versions
of MySQL store their data files in /var which on many installations
(particularly common with linux installations) is part of a smaller
root partition.  If you decide to build from sources you can easily set
the dataDir as an option to configure.

  If you've installed from source or non-package (RPM, deb, etc.) binaries
you'll want to make sure to add mysqld to your init scripts so the server
daemon will come back up whenever your machine reboots.

  You also may want to edit those init scripts, to make sure that
mysqld will accept large packets.  By default, mysqld is set up to only
accept packets up to 64K long.  This limits the size of attachments you
may put on bugs.  If you add something like "-O max_allowed_packet=1M"
to the command that starts mysqld (or safe_mysqld), then you will be
able to have attachments up to about 1 megabyte.

1.2. Perl (5.004 or greater)

  Any machine that doesn't have perl on it is a sad machine indeed.  Perl
for *nix systems can be gotten in source form from http://www.perl.com.

  Perl is now a far cry from the the single compiler/interpreter binary it
once was. It now includes a great many required modules and quite a
few other support files.  If you're not up to or not inclined to build
perl from source, you'll want to install it on your machine using some
sort of packaging system (be it RPM, deb, or what have you) to ensure
a sane install.  In the subsequent sections you'll be installing quite
a few perl modules; this can be quite ornery if your perl installation
isn't up to snuff.

1.3. DBI Perl module

   The DBI module is a generic Perl module used by other database related
Perl modules.  For our purposes it's required by the MySQL-related
modules.  As long as your Perl installation was done correctly the
DBI module should be a breeze.  It's a mixed Perl/C module, but Perl's
MakeMaker system simplifies the C compilation greatly.

  Like almost all Perl modules DBI can be found on the Comprehensive Perl
Archive Network (CPAN) at http://www.cpan.org .  The CPAN servers have a
real tendency to bog down, so please use mirrors.  The current location
at the time of this writing (02/17/99) can be found in Appendix A.

  Quality, general Perl module installation instructions can be found on
the CPAN website, but basically you'll just need to:

        1. Untar the module tarball -- it should create its own directory
        2. Enter the following commands:
                perl Makefile.PL
                make
                make test
                make install

   If everything went ok that should be all it takes.  For the vast
majority of perl modules this is all that's required.

1.4 Data::Dumper Perl module

   The Data::Dumper module provides data structure persistence for Perl
(similar to Java's serialization).  It comes with later sub-releases of
Perl 5.004, but a re-installation just to be sure it's available won't
hurt anything.

   Data::Dumper is used by the MySQL related Perl modules.  It can be
found on CPAN (link in Appendix A) and can be installed by following
the same four step make sequence used for the DBI module.

1.5. MySQL related Perl module collection

   The Perl/MySQL interface requires a few mutually-dependent perl
modules.  These modules are grouped together into the the
Msql-Mysql-modules package.  This package can be found at CPAN (link
in Appendix A).  After the archive file has been downloaded it should
be untarred.

   The MySQL modules are all build using one make file which is generated
by running:

        perl Makefile.PL

   The MakeMaker process will ask you a few questions about the desired
compilation target and your MySQL installation.  For many of the questions
the provided default will be adequate.

   When asked if your desired target is the MySQL or mSQL packages
selected the MySQL related ones.  Later you will be asked if you wish
to provide backwards compatibility with the older MySQL packages; you
must answer YES to this question.  The default will be no, and if you
select it things won't work later.

   A host of 'localhost' should be fine and a testing user of 'test' and
a null password should find itself with sufficient access to run tests
on the 'test' database which MySQL created upon installation.  If 'make
test' and 'make install' go through without errors you should be ready
to go as far as database connectivity is concerned.

1.6. TimeDate Perl module collection

   Many of the more common date/time/calendar related Perl modules have
been grouped into a bundle similar to the MySQL modules bundle. This
bundle is stored on the CPAN under the name TimeDate.  A (hopefully
current) link can be found in Appendix A.  The component module we're
most interested in is the Date::Format module, but installing all of them
is probably a good idea anyway.  The standard Perl module installation
instructions should work perfectly for this simple package.

1.7. GD Perl module (1.18 or greater)

   The GD library was written by Thomas Boutel a long while ago to
programatically generate images in C.  Since then it's become almost a
defacto standard for programatic image construction.  The Perl bindings
to it found in the GD library are used on a million web pages to generate
graphs on the fly.  That's what bugzilla will be using it for so you'd
better install it if you want any of the graphing to work.
  Actually bugzilla uses the Graph module which relies on GD itself, but
isn't that always the way with OOP.  At any rate, you can find the GD
library on CPAN (link in Appendix A) and it installs beautifully in the
usual fashion.

1.8. Chart::Base Perl module (0.99 or greater)

   The Chart module provides bugzilla with on-the-fly charting abilities.
It can be installed in the usual fashion after it has been fetched from
CPAN where it is found as the Chart-x.x... tarball in a directory to be
listed in Appendix A.

1.9. HTTP server

   You have a freedom of choice here - Apache, Netscape or any other
server on UNIX would do. You can easily run the web server on a different
machine than MySQL, but that makes MySQL permissions harder to manage.

   You'll want to make sure that your web server will run any file
with the .cgi extension as a cgi and not just display it.  If you're using
apache that means uncommenting the following line in the srm.conf file:

        AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

   With apache you'll also want to make sure that within the access.conf
file the line:

        Options ExecCGI

is in the stanza that covers the directories you intend to put the
bugzilla .html and .cgi files into.

2. Installing the Bugzilla Files

   You should untar the bugzilla files into a directory that you're
willing to make writable by the default web server user (probably
'nobody').  You may decide to put the files off of the main web space
for your web server or perhaps off of /usr/local with a symbolic link
in the web space that points to the bugzilla directory.  At any rate,
just dump all the files in the same place (optionally omitting the CVS
directory if it accidentally got tarred up with the rest of bugzilla)
and make sure you can get at the files in that directory through your
web server.

   Once all the files are in a web accessible directory, make that
directory writable by your webserver's user (which may require just
making it world writable).  
        
   Lastly, you'll need to set up a symbolic link from /usr/bonsaitools/bin
to the correct location of your perl executable (probably /usr/bin/perl).
Or, you'll have to hack all the .cgi files to change where they look
for perl.

3. Setting Up the MySQL database

   After you've gotten all the software installed and working you're ready
to start preparing the database for its life as a the back end to a high
quality bug tracker.

    First, you'll want to fix MySQL permissions.  Bugzilla always logs
in as user "bugs", with no password.  That needs to work.  MySQL
permissions are a deep, nasty complicated thing.  I've just turned
them off.  If you want to do that, too, then the magic is to do run
"mysql mysql", and feed it commands like this (replace all instances of
HOSTNAME with the name of the machine mysql is running on):

        DELETE FROM host;
        DELETE FROM user;
        INSERT INTO host VALUES
          ('localhost','%','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');
        INSERT INTO host VALUES
          (HOSTNAME,'%','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');
        INSERT INTO user VALUES
          ('localhost','root','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y',
          'Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');
        INSERT INTO user VALUES
          (HOSTNAME,'','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y',
          'Y','Y','Y');
        INSERT INTO user VALUES
          (HOSTNAME,'root','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y',
          'Y','Y','Y','Y');
        INSERT INTO user VALUES
          ('localhost','','','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y',
          'Y','Y','Y','Y');

The number of 'Y' entries to use varies with the version of MySQL; they
keep adding columns.  The list here should work with version 3.22.23b.

This run of "mysql mysql" may need some extra parameters to deal with
whatever database permissions were set up previously.  In particular,
you might have to say "mysql -uroot mysql", and give it an appropriate
password.

For much more information about MySQL permissions, see the MySQL
documentation.

After you've tweaked the permissions, run "mysqladmin reload" to make
sure that the database server knows to look at your new permission list.

Next, you can just run the magic checksetup.pl script.  (Many thanks
to Holger Schurig <holgerschurig@nikocity.de> for writing this script!)
It will make sure things have reasonable permissions, set up the "data"
directory, and create all the MySQL tables.  Just run:

        ./checksetup.pl

The first time you run it, it will create a file called "localconfig"
which you should examine and perhaps tweak a bit.  Then re-run
checksetup.pl and it will do the real work.


At ths point, you should have a nearly empty copy of the bug tracking
setup.

4. Tweaking the Bugzilla->MySQL Connection Data

   If you have played with MySQL permissions, rather than just opening it
wide open as described above, then you may need to tweak the Bugzilla
code to connect appropriately.

   In order for bugzilla to be able to connect to the MySQL database
you'll have to tell bugzilla where the database server is, what
database you're connecting to, and whom to connect as.  Simply open up
the globals.pl file in the bugzilla directory and find the line that
begins like:

        $::db = Mysql->Connect("

   That line does the actual database connection.  The Connect method
takes four parameters which are (with appropriate values):

        1. server's host: just use "localhost"
        2. database name: "bugs" if you're following these directions
        3. MySQL username: whatever you created for your webserver user
                probably "nobody"
        4. Password for the MySQL account in item 3.

Just fill in those values and close up globals.pl

5. Setting up yourself as Maintainer

    Start by creating your own bugzilla account.  To do so, just try to
"add a bug" from the main bugzilla menu (now available from your system
through your web browser!).  You'll be prompted for logon info, and you
should enter your email address and then select 'mail me my password'.
When you get the password mail, log in with it.  Don't finish entering
that new bug.

    Now, add yourself to every group.  The magic checksetup.pl script
can do this for you, if you run it again now.  That script will notice
if there's exactly one user in the database, and if so, add that person
to every group.

    If you want to add someone to every group by hand, you can do it by
typing the appropriate MySQL commands.  Run mysql, and type:

        update profiles set groupset=0x7fffffffffffffff
        where login_name = 'XXX';

replacing XXX with your Bugzilla email address.

Now, if you go to the query page (off of the bugzilla main menu) where
you'll now find a 'edit parameters' option which is filled with editable
treats.

6. Setting Up the Whining Cron Job (Optional)

   By now you've got a fully functional bugzilla, but what good are bugs
if they're not annoying?  To help make those bugs more annoying you can
set up bugzilla's automatic whining system.  This can be done by adding
the following command as a daily crontab entry (for help on that see that
crontab man page):

        cd <your-bugzilla-directory> ; ./whineatnews.pl

7. Bug Graphs (Optional)

   As long as you installed the GD and Graph::Base Perl modules you might
as well turn on the nifty bugzilla bug reporting graphs.  Just add
the command:

        cd <your-bugzilla-directory> ; ./collectstats.pl

as a nightly entry to your crontab and after two days have passed you'll
be able to view bug graphs from the Bug Reports page.

8. Real security for MySQL

MySQL has "interesting" default security parameters:
        mysqld defaults to running as root
        it defaults to allowing external network connections
        it has a known port number, and is easy to detect
        it defaults to no passwords whatsoever
        it defaults to allowing "File_Priv"
This means anyone from anywhere on the internet can not only drop the
database with one SQL command, and they can write as root to the system.

To see your permissions do:
        > mysql -u root -p
        use mysql;
        show tables;
        select * from user;
        select * from db;

To fix the gaping holes:
        DELETE FROM user WHERE User='';
        UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('new_password') WHERE user='root';
        FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

If you're not running "mit-pthreads" you can use:
        GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO bugs@localhost;
        GRANT ALL ON bugs.* TO bugs@localhost;
        REVOKE DROP ON bugs.* FROM bugs@localhost;
        FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

With "mit-pthreads" you'll need to modify the "globals.pl" Mysql->Connect
line to specify a specific host name instead of "localhost", and accept
external connections:
        GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO bugs@bounce.hop.com;
        GRANT ALL ON bugs.* TO bugs@bounce.hop.com;
        REVOKE DROP ON bugs.* FROM bugs@bounce.hop.com;
        FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Consider also:
        o Turning off external networking with "--skip-networking",
          unless you have "mit-pthreads", in which case you can't.
          Without networking, MySQL connects with a Unix domain socket.

        o using the --user= option to mysqld to run it as an unprivileged
          user.

        o starting MySQL in a chroot jail

        o running the httpd in a jail

        o making sure the MySQL passwords are different from the OS
          passwords (MySQL "root" has nothing to do with system "root").

        o running MySQL on a separate untrusted machine

        o making backups ;-)



---------[ Appendices ]-----------------------

Appendix A. Required Software Download Links

   All of these sites are current as of February 17, 1999.  Hopefully
they'll stay current for a while.

MySQL: http://www.mysql.org

Perl: http://www.perl.org

CPAN: http://www.cpan.org

DBI Perl module: ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/DBI/

Data::Dumper module:
        ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/Data/

MySQL related Perl modules:
        ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/Mysql/

TimeDate Perl module collection:
        ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/Date/


GD Perl module: ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/GD/

Chart::Base module:
        ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/Chart/


Appendix B. Modifying Your Running System

   Bugzilla optimizes database lookups by storing all relatively static
information in the versioncache file, located in the data/ subdirectory
under your installation directory (we said before it needs to be writable,
right?!)

   If you make a change to the structural data in your database (the
versions table for example), or to the "constants" encoded in
defparams.pl, you will need to remove the cached content from the data
directory (by doing a "rm data/versioncache"), or your changes won't show
up!

   That file gets automatically regenerated whenever it's more than an
hour old, so Bugzilla will eventually notice your changes by itself, but
generally you want it to notice right away, so that you can test things.


Appendix C. Upgrading from previous versions of Bugzilla

The developers of Bugzilla are constantly adding new tables, columns and
fields.  You'll get SQL errors if you just update the code.  The strategy
to update is to simply always run the checksetup.pl script whenever
you upgrade your installation of Bugzilla.  If you want to see what has
changed, you can read the comments in that file, starting from the end.


Appendix D. History

   This document was originally adapted from the Bonsai installation
instructions by Terry Weissman <terry@mozilla.org>.

   The February 25, 1999 re-write of this page was done by Ry4an Brase
<ry4an@ry4an.org>, with some edits by Terry Weissman, Bryce Nesbitt,
& Martin Pool (But don't send bug reports to them!  Report them using
bugzilla, at http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi , project Webtools,
component Bugzilla).

   Comments from people using this document for the first time are
especially welcomed.